Travellers need to be aware of conjunctivitis risk

Travellers need to be aware of conjunctivitis risk as the monsoon season increases cases.

By Southall Travel -Friday, June 17, 2011 03:50 PM

People travelling on flights to Mumbai need to be aware that the monsoon season in India can increase the risk of contracting conjunctivitis.

With the start of the monsoon season upon the Indian subcontinent, the city of Mumbai has seen a small rise in the number of cases of conjunctivitis, reported the Hindustan Times.

In particular, people who wear contact lenses are more likely to be susceptible to coming down with conjunctivitis, according to one optometrist.

Dr Yasmin Bhagat, head of ophthalmology department, St George Hospital, said that people who wear contact lenses for prolonged periods of time were "more prone to allergic papillary conjunctivitis".

Allergic conjunctivitis occurs when the eye comes into contact with an allergen.

The Lotus Eye Hospital, which recorded 20 cases of conjunctivitis in May, reported it had already seen 35 patients with the eye infection in the first weeks of June.

Elsewhere, Dr BK Nayak, head of the ophthalmology department at Hinduja Hospital, said that so far in June alone he had seen 32 patients with conjunctivitis. In May he had only seen four.

Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of the conjunctiva, which is the transparent membrane that covers the inner surfaces of the eye.

Written by Alex Cochrane
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